DISPATCHES FROM THE ARID LANDS

Menu

Four days in a beach town

It continues to amaze me how good I feel when crossing into California from Arizona. It must be something like reversing course on the River Styx and coming, not back to Earth, but off-trail and into paradise.

California, true, is a physical place. But to me, it is also “California,” a state of mind, freedom from the restraints of living in a conservative dust bowl that is Arizona.

A cantankerous Arizona friend suggested, “you, um, could stay there in your paradise.” But as I tried in vain to explain, living in paradise everyday would soon become ho-hum and then would not be paradise at all. You need a taste of hell to appreciate it.

So as we crossed the border a few days ago at the Colorado River, where even passing the drab desert town of Blythe, in California, sent my spirits soaring. It was then I felt assured we would soon reach our destination on the coast, at the pretty little beach town of Carlsbad, between San Diego and L.A.

We took a room with an ocean view at the Tamarack Beach Resort. Our patio is separated from the Pacific only by the busy four-lane, Carlsbad Boulevard, the upper walkway with its blue metal railing, the lower walkway and the beach. That is probably all of 100 yards, depending on the tides.

The great thing is we have not used Nebra’s Prius since arriving three days ago. We walk everywhere. The town is only a short walk away with its numerous restaurants and boutiques. We loaded up on toiletries at an Albertsons market, one of the many generic businesses here..

Weather is nice. Sunny every day, temps in the 70s. Yes, that is much like Arizona, but with the added pluses of brisk ocean air and the atmosphere of freedom, something unavailable at our home in Phoenix under that angry, mean, hateful red-state cloud.

We leave tomorrow for home, our four-days in blue-state paradise sadly at an end.

It is not lost on me that this little pocket of heaven is subject to risk. After all it is in Earthquake Country. But I’ve found in this life that without risk, man’s life on this lonely planet never comes close to reaching the stars.